Personnel Skills for Library Managers and Supervisors

Presented for PCI Webinars by

Dr. Steve Albrecht, PHR, CPP, BCC, CTM

DrSteve@DrSteveAlbrecht.com

Dr. Steve Albrecht HR and Security Consultant

AGENDA

It starts with you . . .

The Four Functions of Leadership (plus one).

Safe and Legal Hiring and Interviewing Processes.

Leading and Managing People.

Coaching the Big Four.

Better Performance Evaluations.

Progressive Discipline and Humane HR.

YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE

Hands-on?

Upside: You have good control and awareness.

Downside: You can be labeled a “micromanager.”

Hands-off?

Upside: You let people do their work.

Downside: You can be labeled a “missing manager.”

Interactive?

Upside: It shows you trust your employees and you can get

involved as necessary.

Downside: You have to know when to use each style.

THE STRENGTH-WEAKNESS IRONY

Your strength, taken to an extreme, becomes a weakness.

Examples:

workaholism

“Super Boss” disease

Perfectionism

“I can’t say no.”

SOME TRUTHS . . .

Leadership is very different than “managership.”

The higher you get, the less “work” you do.

It’s usually easier to supervise an unfamiliar group.

There will never be enough time, resources, money, or people, to do everything you need or want to do.

Remember Teddy Roosevelt.

“Do the best you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Albrecht’s Addition: “Do the best you can, with who you have, where you are.”

THE FOUR FUNCTIONS OF LEADERSHIP+

Planning

Communicating

Delegating

Monitoring

What to do and when to do it?

Speaking, meeting, or writing. Providing information, solving interpersonal problems.

Assigning tasks, projects, or responsibilities.

Making sure delegated items or situations get handled. Keeping track of people and projects.

PLANNING

Prioritizing, organizing, and preparing for the days, weeks, months, and quarters ahead.

What is short-term planning versus long-term?

Preventing end-of-the-day/week chaos.

What are your planning tools? (Beyond To Do lists; read David Allen’s Getting Things Done)

How do you demonstrate success to your boss?

COMMUNICATING

Providing direction, support, information, and leadership to your employees.

Handling employee performance and behavioral issues.

Setting performance expectations.

Setting goals for your people: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly.

Enforcing policies for all concerned.

Aligning your management style to fit the work culture.

DELEGATING

Admit that you cannot and should not try to do everything. Good bosses delegate.

Make a delegation list of people and tasks.

Determine who needs training, tools, or support.

Practice “incremental delegation” until you’re more comfortable.

Don’t practice “reverse delegation” and ride to the rescue too often.

MONITORING

If the secret to good management is delegation, then the secret to good delegation is in building a strong follow-up system.

Use a project board, your day planner, a group calendar, or a similar visual e-devices.

Create a “tickler system” for deadlines for you and your employees.

Demand accountability and responsibility on all delegated tasks.

DELEGATION UPSIDES

It’s a stress management tool for you.

It allows you to grow and develop your people at various levels, by giving them new skills and a sense of empowerment through their contributions.

It helps you work faster and smarter.

It lets you focus on your longer-term, “Big Picture” ideas or plans.

DELEGATION DOWNSIDES

It’s hard for control-oriented supervisors.

For some supervisors, it creates a nagging sense that they could delegate themselves out of a job.

Some employees just don’t want to do more than their usual, daily tasks.

At the end of the day, you’re still responsible.

DECISION-MAKING TOOLS

“A” Decisions versus “B” Decisions.

Q1 – I decide; you go do it.

Q2 – We discuss it; I decide; you go do it.

Q3 – We discuss it; you decide; you go do it.

Q4 – You decide; you go do it.

OTHER DELEGATION ISSUES

Is time a factor? What is the margin for error?

How long should or will it take for the employee to learn the task?

How will you monitor the process?

Does your boss want you to continue doing it?

People learn by failing and don’t just give projects to your Rising Stars.

SAFE AND LEGAL HIRING &

INTERVIEW APPROACHES

Don’t over-rely on internal referrals for recruiting.

Use up to date applications from HR.

Structured interview questions, vetted from HR.

Panel interviews, social interviews, based on the job.

Hire for technical and interpersonal skills.

Experience versus enthusiasm?

The value of orientations, on-boarding, ample training, and probationary periods.

COACHING USING THE THREE Cs

COMMUNICATE – Let them tell you their issues, without being

judgmental. Listen carefully, without interrupting.

CLARIFY – Use paraphrasing questions to make certain you

understand their concerns. Ask for their solutions or suggest

your own.

COMMIT – Get their promise for a commitment to action. When

will they start doing what you’ve both now agreed upon?

You have response-ability: the ability to choose your response

to the other person or the group.

COACHING CANDIDATES

Smart Slacker

Rising Star

Problem Child

Plow Horse

Real Contribution

Po

ten

tia

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on

trib

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Low High

High

COACHING PROCESS

Don’t wait until the Performance Evaluation process to request performance or behavioral changes.

Script out your main points and refer to your notes during the meeting. Put a fence around excuses.

Allow time to pass between meetings. Praise progress.

Hold “Personal Accountability Meetings” with employees who are on the verge of a PIP or a BIP.

MANAGING THE BIG FOUR

Smart Slackers – Confront their behavior, attitude, or performance. Remind them of their “legacy” status. Ask for their help. Use PIPs and BIPs.

Problem Children – Use your progressive discipline process. Ask them to make a stay/go choice.

Plow Horses – Encourage them to use option-thinking to problem-solve. Reward progress.

Shining Stars – Give them challenges but watch for job burnout. Create a career path.

EVAL TROUBLE

Too many categories, scales; poorly designed forms.

Grade inflation, the halo effect, response bias.

Entitled employees.

Bosses with no courage to support the process.

OUR GLOSSARY

“Firm, fair, consistent, reasonable” &

“Business Impact” &

“Consequence Behavior” &

P.O.V

EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE DISCUSSION STEPS

1. Open the meeting.

2. Describe any problem areas.

3. Help the employee generate solutions.

4. Discuss the solutions.

5. Describe any strengths.

6. Discuss a development plan.

7. Close the meeting.

(Handle excuses)

PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLINE

Follow your HR policies, MOUs, and union rules.

Coaching (no Weingarten rep necessary)

PAM / Counseling meeting.

Verbal warning.

Written warning(s).

Suspension, and/or performance or behavior improvement plan, outside coaching.

Demotion, transfer, hours or duties change.

Termination

A CORRECTIVE MODEL

Open the meeting; build rapport; state the purpose).

Give specific examples; use behaviors, not labels.

Get agreement a behavior, performance, or policy violation exists.

Discuss alternatives and solutions.

Get a commitment to act; seek his or her ownership.

Close the meeting with a feedback loop.

INFLUENCING: THE HIDDEN TOOL

Your ability to persuade your people to do their work, not just by telling, but by selling.

Leadership is about building trust. It’s how you use your knowledge, experience, and intelligence to gently or boldly convince others to follow your directions.

It’s known as “walking the talk.”

THE TOOLS OF INFLUENCE

Leading from the front and the rear. (Getting your hands dirty, from time to time.)

Never lying.

Modeling consistency, reliability, and the humane treatment of all.

Keeping your people informed.

Standing up for your people when it’s the right thing to do.

Personnel Skills for Library Managers and Supervisors

Presented for PCI Webinars by

Dr. Steve Albrecht, PHR, CPP, BCC, CTM

DrSteve@DrSteveAlbrecht.com